Old timer told me to ditch my drysuit for a wetty on a warm-water job

Back in 2019 I was working a platform inspection off the coast of Galveston. Water temp was pushing 80, and this grizzled guy named Doyle says, 'Son, you're gonna cook in that drysuit. Just use a 5mm farmer john.' I thought he was crazy. But I gave it a shot and man, he was right. Moving around on those legs was way easier, and I didn't have to deal with sweat pooling in my boots. Has anyone else had an old salt steer you wrong or right like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

ruby_patel271mo ago

ngl i feel like people overthink this stuff. 80 degree water in a drysuit is not that deep, just unzip it a little lol.

the_john1mo ago

yeah exactly, that's what I ended up doing when I was diving off Catalina in similar temps. I just unzipped my wrist seals a tiny bit and let some water trickle in to cool off. worked way better than trying to fiddle with the neck seal or vent valves every 5 minutes. the trick is just to do it gradually so you don't flood the whole suit and end up cold and heavy. I learned that the hard way my first time, drenched my base layer and had to cut the dive short. so yeah, a little zip adjustment goes a long way, no need to overthink it.